


odd one out

by cosmoscrow



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Dragon Quest XI Act I Spoilers, Erik is a walking How Do I Handle The Luminary And His Odd Quirks self help book, Friendship, Named Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Selectively Mute Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Some angst, because i love the trope of chosen heroes being slightly. odd, but i really wanted to write this, his name is Kuron bc i love my little hero boy, i swear i'll write a Found Family DQ fic soon, like as in non human odd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:53:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24334660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmoscrow/pseuds/cosmoscrow
Summary: Those otherwordly Luminary powers must come with some perks. But just how deep do they actually run?Interestingly, Erik doesn't really want to know.or; the trope of how the Chosen Hero might be just human-shaped.
Relationships: Camus | Erik & Hero | Luminary
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55





	odd one out

**Author's Note:**

> Salutations!
> 
> I am currently extremely, unapologetically obsessed with Dragon Quest XI and no one can stop me from writing my own take on it. And to anyone who's familiar with my writing; yes, I will write a ton of Found Family fics for this, because 1) I am Weak, 2) I HAVE MADE MY NICHE AND I WILL SIT IN IT, and 3) My City Now.
> 
> Also because I'm currently travelling with Hendrick and all of it screams for "Sir your Inner Dad is showing" shenanigans.
> 
> ANYWAY ENJOY AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK BC I LOVE CHARACTERS WHO MIGHT JUST BE HUMAN SHAPED ELDRITCH MONSTERS.

* * *

Erik knew that being the fabled Luminary must come with a few perks. Such as surviving a free fall from a cliff and washing ashore with nothing but a few scrapes and bruises. He still doesn’t know _how_ , but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not to mention, he _might_ – strongly acknowledge the _might_ – be slightly afraid of what he could end up finding. Ever since he was travelling along with the Luminary, the boy, _Kuron_ , he came to the realisation of how he doesn’t know how _far_ those perks actually go.

Because Kuron was, for the lack of better words, _odd_.

And Erik wasn’t talking about mousy countryside bumpkin odd, even if it was true, with how constantly distracted the boy was when he had half-heartedly followed the ex-thief through the city of Heliodor. If Erik had to count the amount of times he had to pull Kuron away from an everyday occurrence in city-life on his fingers alone, he’s sure he’d need about three pairs of hands. So no, Kuron wasn’t _just_ mousy, dorky, overly inquisitive and irritatingly clumsy when it came to stealth it nearly made Erik cry kind of odd.

It was more like a vaguely, _maybe_ , as he watched Kuron’s eerily clear eyes reflect bright gold in the shine of the campfire between them, not entirely human kind of odd.

Erik blinked, hand flexing uneasily around the grip of his trusty dagger. He doesn’t move a muscle however, his face calm despite having stopped in the middle of whittling away on a piece of wood he had picked up. Across from him, Kuron contently munched away on a grilled rabbit Erik had managed to strike down, only pausing long enough to stuff a few berries into his mouth. Surely that couldn’t be an overly tasty combination, but the boy seemed to think it a delicacy, berry juice childishly dripping from the corner of his lips. And with every shift of his head, his eyes lit up in a golden sheen, completely blanketing his sclera and iris in the light of the fire. It reminded Erik of the eyes of a Great Sabrecat and he was pretty sure human eyes weren’t supposed to reflect light _this_ much.

_Maybe it’s a Luminary thing_ , his mind whispered, trying to quell the upcoming feeling of trepidation. Yeah, maybe it was just a Luminary thing, just another one of those perks and whatever magic that came with being the Chosen One.

It had to be.

He felt his hand moving the blade over the wood again and nearly cut off his own damn finger, when he spotted Kuron looking at him through the dancing flames between them. He seemed a little startled mid-chew, one cheek stuffed with food still, making him look like a particularly hungry chipmunk caught stealing nuts. His wide-eyed gaze was questioning, even going so far to tilt his head to the side.

Erik swallowed, ignoring how one of those eyes glazed over with gold, and shook off the wordless question hanging in the air with hard-practiced ease.

“It’s nothing, just lost in my own head,” he said and turned back to his wood-carving.

That night, despite the looming darkness of the Manglegrove around them, those sightless gold-glazed eyes were unnervingly bright in Erik’s mind.

* * *

If those freaky night eyes– no, _Luminary_ Eyes, they’re not _freaky_ , they’re just another _Luminary_ _thing_ – weren’t enough, it just so happened that Kuron also had odd habits. Of course, Erik didn’t count his companion’s selective mutism as a habit, it was actually rather cool learning a whole new arrange of signs, even developing their own little words. It was by then, that Erik bore his assigned sign name with something akin to pride (it was the sign for the colour _Blue_ , upon which Kuron pointed at his hair with a self-satisfied little grin). And no, neither did Erik count the other boy’s absolutely infuriating habit of wandering off without telling him onto the list. Even though, he had to admit, he was very close to just cementing it on the very top of the Kuron’s Oddities list, because by Goddess, one of these days Erik will go through with his mental threat and fashion the Luminary with a child leash. He wasn’t keen on repeating the Grublin incident. Don’t even ask him about it.

(The Grublin Incident was one mess falling into another, starting with Erik losing sight of Kuron on an _open field_ , only to find the naive fool high up in a tree reaching for a sparkling blue butterfly wing, just above an oblivious nest of Gloomy Grublins. That was, until Kuron slipped and pretty much belly flopped smack dab in the middle of those nasty little fuckers and Erik had to slice his way through the ensuing brawl. Not only that, but one Grublin got a good swipe at him, costing him a near chunk of his precious hair. Literally everything but the _hair_ , since his personality wouldn’t be nearly enough to be as attractive as he’s considered to be. Or so he was told. Look, he just really liked his hair.)

Where was he. Right, odd habits on odd Kuron with his vaguely non-human-yet-still-humanly oddities. It wasn’t the habit of wandering off, the apparent possession of a black hole for a stomach and the penchant for dive-bombing random monsters minding their own business that put Erik off, no, it was Kuron’s tendency to just crouch down and stare intently.

At nothing.

Or well, Erik never saw anything, but with how focussed Kuron was, he certainly saw _something_. Or someone, which silently freaked him out more the moment the boy’s mouth twitched up into his little smile and lifted his hand to wave. On some levels, it was kind of endearing in how Kuron interacted with the world around him with gentle affection. But on the other hand, it was creepy to all the high heavens, because Erik just couldn’t make out _what_ exactly he was seeing. He just sat there, big eyes watching, tracking _something_ across the grass, sometimes he even stared with a tilted head at rock outcroppings and stone ruins. As if something was sitting there, watching them travel across green plains or mountain ridges.

But, like before, Erik said nothing. Never daring to slip a word or question over his lips, because it’s just part of the whole Luminary thing.

Yeah, just Luminary things, he thought to himself, watching silently how Kuron reached towards an empty spot on a rock, before blinking in confusion and retracting his hand.

_Just Luminary things_.

* * *

Now, here’s the thing; it’s not like Erik was actively trying to stay ignorant of Kuron’s decidedly non-human attributes. Let’s face it, he’d stopped denying it in his mind after the third night of seeing those gold-sheen eyes flash at him over the embers of a campfire. However, he wasn’t about to trot up to the Luminary, tap his shoulder and inform him like “ _Hey man, just wanted to let you know that you’re probably not as human as you think you are and that fact kinda freaks me out a bit, pal!_ ”.

Because at this point, Erik was very aware of the grave, grave certainty, that Kuron _himself_ had no idea what he’s actually capable of. 

To be honest, he doesn’t fault the boy for that, and while he wouldn’t call him sheltered, Erik knew that pretty much for the entire span of his current life, Kuron has lived in a tiny village, full of people who barely changed. So it was easy for a boy like Kuron to just grow up thinking, that he was just as ordinary as everyone else around him. Minus the uniquely shaped birth mark on his left hand. And his glowy eyes. Or what seemed to be fangs glinting in his mouth.

Kuron yawned, the sleepyhead calling from within, and giving Erik the perfect view of the orderly rows of teeth lining his mouth. Top canines vaguely shaped like an arrow’s head, yet rounded off enough to pass as just pointy snaggleteeth. The bottom pair however, wasn’t as subtle – they stood out, like miniature tusks, not unlike the fangs of the feline monsters they had encountered. They were probably also the reason why Kuron never complained about meat being too tough if he had these kind of bad boys doing all the work for him. Not to say that the boy ever complained, he rarely did in fact, usually pretty content with the smallest things. Unlike Veronica, who had made another snide remark about the meat Erik had hunted down for all of them.

“What, milk teeth giving you trouble?” the ex-thief sneered back, hiding his smirk by gnawing on a bone. His self-satisfaction grew when he watched the gremlin’s face go ruddy with barely concealed rage. Goes to show that small creatures truly are the most wrathful, considering their anger to body size ratio just didn’t match up.

Thankfully, Serena chose the moment to drop back in, arms full of fire wood, before her shrunken twin sister could brain Erik with her oversized staff. That thing _hurt_ , by the way. The resident and newly acquired healertossed some of the wood into the fire, making it grow in size. Just as she nudged the burning twigs together with a sturdy stick, she briefly glanced up and gasped loudly. The stick clattered to the ground as she held her hands up to her chest, wide eyes trained onto Kuron across from her.

The Luminary had startled at the noise, promptly choking on the berries he had been swallowing and as he turned away, hacking and coughing, Erik knew what had alarmed Serena.

Damn flashy eyes.

“K-Kuron,” the healer stuttered, “you– your–”

“Seriously, man, you gotta stop sneaking up on people,” Erik interrupted her, ignoring how the sisters sent him incredulous looks. Kuron winced as he finally swallowed, before facing his friend and signing furiously.

“I wasn’t sneaking up!”

“Maybe you’re just too damn quiet, then,” Erik suggested cheekily, barking out a short laugh when the other threw a bone at him.

“Jerk,” Kuron signed, sulkily shoving more berries into his mouth. Successfully distracted, Erik turned back to the fire while scrutinising his dagger. He could feel eyes on him.

“…Erik?”

“Don’t,” he told Serena, voice low. “Let him figure it out himself, it’s better that way.”

Surprisingly, none of the sisters argued with that. _Good_ , Erik thought to himself, watching the light of the fire reflect off of the blade in his hands, Kuron’s reflection within it flashing golden eyes .

* * *

It dawned on the rest of their companions the longer they travelled together, fighting side by side, grinding their teeth through hard battles and sharing relieved smiles at every victory. Erik noticed how they noticed; the way Serena would throw the occasional side-glance at Kuron, how Sylvando would smile at the boy when he was caught staring, the knowing looks shared between Rab and Jade and the way Veronica would track the Luminary’s every action with her analysing eyes.

They knew, all of them, that Kuron was _odd_. Just maybe, vaguely.

But that didn’t matter to them – it never did. Kuron was still mousy and dorky, despite his flashing eyes. Still sweet and determined, with his little fangs and jaws that creaked ominously whenever he was agitated. Still so kind and utterly gentle, oblivious to the fact that no man could actually halt a Spitzfire dead in its tracks with one long, terrifying glance alone, after it had brutally clawed one of his friends.

They all knew that by all accounts – strength, habits, attributes – Kuron wasn’t human. Yet he certainly was human shaped. With kind eyes, little smile and a slight dusting of freckles over his cheeks. Yggdrasil’s favourite little leaf sure was extraordinary. And just maybe, that was her intention, that her chosen champion was just a tad… _odd_.

Kuron himself still seemed blissfully unaware of his true nature, just itching beneath his skin. But Erik caught the few moments, where the boy had slowed down in front of reflecting shop windows, hesitantly lifting his hand to pull his lips aside and inspect his teeth. Erik had seen the way Kuron’s eyebrows furrowed at the unusual shape of them. And it was Erik to whom Kuron turned to, one night, their entire camp asleep except for the two of them. The boy’s fingers ghosted over his own chest, pressing down every once in a while, always above the spot where his heart was.

“Erik?” Kuron’s voice was always so quiet, a bare whisper in the wind, so soft from rare use. 

Erik grunted.

“Do I have. A heart?”

It was an odd question, just as odd as Kuron. But Erik knew what he was asking for. So he told him the truth, that the entire group knew.

“‘Course, a real big one too. Just a little too soft, if you ask me,” he commented idly, before yawning from his place on his sleeping mat. He had his arms behind his head and eyes closed, but he could practically hear the thankful little smile in his best friend’s whisper voice.

“That’s good.”

And that was the end of it, Erik supposed. His mind painted a picture of Kuron, smiling serenely as he stared into the dying fire, eyes alight in gold. No doubt, the same golden shimmer like the ichor, which Erik was sure of flowed in Kuron’s veins.

* * *

(Erik was right about the golden ichor. But he never knew, he could suddenly hate such a bright and glamorous colour so much, the moment he saw it seep past Kuron’s lips as Mordegon sunk his palm into his chest.

And he never knew, that Kuron could scream this loud.

He never wanted to hear it again.)

**Author's Note:**

> [I also make art of them being silly.](https://cherrytraveller.tumblr.com)


End file.
